Reconstruction:Proto-Yoruboid/ɛ̀-lɪ̃

Etymology
Like the root for three, see, this is one of the most stable forms across Atlantic-Congo. In Volta-Niger, see 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬. Also see 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, and perhaps 🇨🇬. See 🇨🇬 and or 🇨🇬, and Proto-Ebiroid, 🇨🇬, and 🇨🇬, and 🇨🇬, perhaps this can be reconstructed to or.

In languages in the Volta-Congo branch, see 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬. In Gur, see 🇨🇬, 🇨🇬. Also see 🇨🇬, and among Bantu languages, 🇨🇬. Proposed to be from or  (proposed by Westerman and Blench), ultimately from  as proposed by Pozdniakov, or  as proposed by Güldemann. The root is also hypothesized to be the common root from which the form elephant also comes in many languages including Proto-Yoruboid, suggesting it being a doublet of. See Pozdniakov and Appendix:Proto-Niger-Congo numerals for more extensive data.

In most Niger-Congo languages, the term for eight is derived from the root for four, (usually a reduplication of the "four" root), however, like the rest of numbers from 1-10, Proto-Yoruboid has unique roots for each term (a unique innovation not seen in most families in Niger-Congo)

Numeral

 * 1) four

Descendants

 * Northwest Yoruba; Northeast Yoruba:
 * Central Yoruba
 * Ekiti Yoruba: ,
 * Southeast Yoruba
 * Ondo Yoruba:
 * Owo Yoruba:
 * Ekiti Yoruba: ,
 * Southeast Yoruba
 * Ondo Yoruba:
 * Owo Yoruba: